Delete a Single Voice Message Right Away
Open the Messages app and find the conversation with the voice message you want to remove. Press and hold on the voice message bubble itself — the one that shows the audio waveform or a play button. A menu will appear with several options. Tap More at the bottom right of the screen.
Once you tap More, the message will gain a checkmark and additional options appear at the bottom of the screen. Tap the trash can icon on the far right. The voice message is now deleted from that conversation. If you change your mind when ready, you can tap Undo at the bottom of the screen before you close the conversation.
This method works the same way whether the voice message came through iMessage (blue bubble) or SMS (green bubble). The difference is only in how the message was sent, not how you remove it.
Key Takeaways
- Press and hold a voice message, tap More, then tap the trash icon to delete a single message from a conversation.
- You can delete multiple voice messages at once by tapping More on each one while in edit mode, then tapping the trash icon once.
- Deleting a message from a conversation does not delete it from your device storage — voice messages are stored in the Messages app database, not as separate audio files.
- If you want to free up storage space, you need to delete entire conversations or adjust your message retention settings in the Messages app.
- Voice messages older than 30 days are set to auto-delete by default on newer iPhones, but you can change this in Settings.
Delete Multiple Voice Messages at Once
If you have several voice messages to remove from the same conversation, you can delete them together instead of one at a time. Open the conversation and tap Edit in the top left corner. The messages in that conversation will now show circles to the left of each one.
Tap the circle next to each voice message you want to delete. A checkmark will appear in the circle when you select it. You can select as many as you need. Once you have chosen all the ones you want gone, tap Delete in the bottom right corner, then confirm by tapping Delete again.
This is faster than deleting one message at a time if you are cleaning up a conversation with many voice messages from the same person.
Change When Voice Messages Auto-Delete
iPhone has a built-in setting that automatically deletes voice messages after a certain amount of time. On newer iPhones running iOS 16 or later, voice messages are set to delete after 30 days by default. You can change this behavior if you want to keep them longer or delete them sooner.
Go to Settings on your home screen, then tap Messages. Scroll down and look for the section labeled Audio Messages. You will see two options: Expire and Keep. Tap Expire if you want messages to delete automatically after 30 days. Tap Keep if you want voice messages to stay in your conversations forever unless you delete them manually.
This setting applies to all voice messages you receive going forward, not to messages you have already received. Messages that have already expired will not come back if you change the setting to Keep.
Delete an Entire Conversation With Voice Messages
If you want to remove all messages — including voice messages — from a person or group chat, deleting the whole conversation is the fastest way. Open the Messages app and find the conversation you want to remove. Swipe left on the conversation name with your finger. A red Delete button will appear on the right side.
Tap the red Delete button. The entire conversation and all its messages, including any voice messages, will be removed from your Messages app. This action cannot be undone, so make sure you want to delete everything in that conversation before you tap.
If you are not sure whether you want to keep the conversation but just want to hide it for now, you can swipe left and tap Hide instead. Hidden conversations stay on your device but do not show up in your main Messages list. You can unhide them later by tapping Edit in the top left of the Messages app and selecting Show All Messages.
Understand Where Voice Messages Are Stored
Voice messages on iPhone are not stored as separate audio files on your device the way a voice memo or a song would be. Instead, they are stored inside the Messages app database as part of your conversation history. When you delete a voice message from a conversation, you are removing it from that database.
This means that deleting voice messages from Messages does not free up much storage space on your iPhone. If you are trying to make room on your device, the better approach is to delete entire conversations or to clear out old text and photo messages, which take up more space than audio.
If you want to know how much space Messages is using on your device, go to Settings, tap General, then tap iPhone Storage. Scroll down and tap Messages. You will see the total size of your Messages app and can tap Review Large Attachments to see which conversations have the biggest files.
Recover a Deleted Voice Message
Once you delete a voice message from the Messages app, it is gone from your device. iPhone does not have a trash or recently deleted folder for messages the way it does for photos or emails. You cannot recover a voice message after you delete it unless you have a backup.
If you back up your iPhone to iCloud or to a computer using a Mac or PC, you can restore from that backup to get deleted messages back. However, restoring a backup will also restore your entire device to the state it was in when the backup was made, so you will lose any changes you made since then. This is not a practical way to recover a single deleted message.
The best approach is to think carefully before you delete a voice message, especially if it is something important or sentimental. If you are not sure whether you want to keep it, you can mute the conversation instead so you do not see notifications from it, but the messages stay on your device.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do voice messages take up a lot of storage space on my iPhone?
Voice messages are relatively small files compared to photos or videos, but they do use some space. If you have hundreds of voice messages, they can add up. Deleting old conversations is the most effective way to free up storage if Messages is taking up too much room on your device.
Can I save a voice message before I delete it?
Yes. Press and hold the voice message, tap More, then tap Save instead of Delete. The message will be saved to your Notes app or Files app depending on your iOS version. You can then delete the message from Messages without losing the audio.
What happens to voice messages if I delete the entire conversation?
All messages in that conversation, including voice messages, are permanently deleted from your Messages app. They cannot be recovered unless you restore from a backup made before you deleted the conversation.
Why are my voice messages disappearing on their own?
Your iPhone is set to auto-delete voice messages after 30 days by default. If you want to keep them longer, go to Settings > Messages > Audio Messages and tap Keep instead of Expire.
Can I delete a voice message that someone else sent me without them knowing?
Yes. Deleting a message from your Messages app only removes it from your device. The other person still has their copy of the message on their phone. There is no notification sent when you delete a message.